BRUSSELS – A former Tunisian footballer now serving a jail sentence in Belgium for terror-related offences is to sue the Belgian authorities over the conditions of his detention, it emerged on Thursday.

Le Soir newspaper reported that Nizar Trabelsi, who was jailed for ten years for planning a bomb attack at a US army base in Belgium, would argue that he is being held in illegal and inhumane conditions.

Trabelsi’s lawyer Didier De Quevy said his client is being held in solitary confinement in a high security wing in Belgium’s Lantin prison.

De Quevy says Trabelsi often sees no one for stretches of up to 48 hours, a practice the lawyer argues is illegal.

The ex-footballer also has to exercise alone at the prison.

For the past two weeks Trabelsi has been on almost continuous hunger strike to draw attention to his situation.

He is due to put his case to Belgian magistrates on 30 September.

[Copyright Expatica 2004]

Subject: Belgian news